I love to draw and my kids love to draw. Sometimes we draw at the same time and together as a whole group. This weekend, we couldn’t decide what we could all work on together so we decided to set ourselves a little challenge. Think ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ meets ‘Dr Dolittle’.
We wrote the names of scores of animals – representatives from every species – onto little slips of paper, folded these bits of paper up and popped them in a bowl. Then each of us would select at least two slips of paper and draw the resulting hybrid animal. We could only return a slip if the animals chosen at random were too similar. The idea then was to draw something amusing, something that gave us all a bit of a chuckle, rather than to produce a drawing that even approached realism.
We had an absolute hoot drawing our crazy animals. The kids drew theirs in pencil. I also drew in pencil but then went over my lines with pitt pen and gave each drawing a quick watercolour wash to add colour. Once each combination critter was drawn, we shared our drawings. Much chuckling ensued. Naming our animals through use of portmanteau resulted in yet more mirth.
Here are a selection of our hybrid beasties.
So if you want a simple, quick, easy art project to do with kids – or just for fun yourself – then I highly recommend doing this. I know we will do this again and again.
Great idea!
Thank you. 🙂
Ah this is a wonderful idea! Next time the boys are over, we will tear into the art cupboard and play the game… thanks so much, Laura! 🙂 Mother Hen
You are welcome. I decided to share this activity precisely because it was so simple and easy and it generated a lot of fun for so little investment. I hope you have fun when you do it.
I’ll have to post my results and link to yours… my grandsons will have a blast! (Well, and me too… ) xx MH
Oh how cute are these wee beasties, Lewis Carroll would be proud, and such names..how fitting they are, just love how evocative they are, perfect neologisms. Someone should phone the Oxford dictionary people!! Your kids are very talented, and this would make such a fun journal prompt too!
Thanks so much, Mike. My 7 year old actually wants to mate rhinos with zebras in order to create unicorns so the inspiration really came from him. 😀
What a great idea, a striped unicorn!
He saw them in the same enclosure at a zoo and thought that was what the keepers were up to, trying to breed unicorns. The imaginations of kids, eh?
Well perhaps that’s all the encouragement he needs to become a zoologist when gets older!
Or a mad scientist.
Aren’t they the same thing?
great way to bond with your kids! 🙂
It was. We all draw a lot but it’s nice to all be working in the same thing at the same time.
Love this idea – so simple yet so much fun Laura! We are travelling at the weekend, think we might be using it!!
Oh yes! It would definitely work as a travel game since all you need is pencil and paper. Have a great weekend!
Love this! I bet my grandaughters would love it! Love the names you gave them!
I hope you try it with them some time. It was such a hoot. “Sleasel” was my favourite of the names.
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